Venetian blind



June 28, 1938. w. WADE ET AL 2,122,224

VENETIAN BLIND Filed Jan. 28, 1957 Mlliam T fl Zlae and Edwin Aforzfl/ I N VENTORS THE/18 ATTORNEY.

Patented June 28, 1938 1 uNlreo STATES rAraar prince 2,122,224 vaaarm mama William Wade, Chicago, and Edwin North, Rockiord, Ill., assignors to National Lock Company,

Rockford, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application January 28, 1937, Serial No. 122,803 5 Claims. (or 156-17) This invention relates to Venetian blinds, and 3), the front cord being attached at its upper particularly to novel means for supporting the extremity to the bottom of the carriage M by blind slats from a top rail or carriage. means of an eyelet sleeve 22 crimped onto the One of the important objects residing in the end of the cord and having a stay pin 24 passed 5 invention is the provision of flexible slat supthrough the eyelet portion thereof and bent into 5 porting and controlling members in the form of U-shape with its free end portions diverged over cords or the like and means for attaching the the edges of an opening 25 in the bottom of the supporting members to the several slats and for carriage, these diverged ends of the pin being maintaining certain others of the flexible memsecured from displacement by bentover ears 26 bers in proper operating relation to the first which are punched out of the side walls of the 110 mentioned flexible members. carriage it and bent over'onto the pins.

A further object of the invention is the pro- The lowermost ends of these same outer cords vision of a Venetian blind which is relatively H are provided with eyelet sleeves 22' which quiet in operation or when subjected to unusual engage cleats II secured to the bottommost slat w vibration such as might be found in Pullman it, the cleats having eyelets or loops H which cars'and the like. pass through the eyelet portion of the sleeve so Still another object is the provision of novel that the cord is pivotally attached at its lower slat supporting means of an extremely flexible extremity to the edge of this lower slat. nature and adapted for novel attachment to the Each of the front cords I2 is also attached blind slats and top rail or carriage. to the longitudinal edges of each of the inter- 20 Other objects and novel aspects of the invenmediate slats It by means of a special clip tion will appear as the following description proshown in Fig. 4. This clip 30 is in the form 01 ceeds in view of the annexed drawing, in an elongated metal strip bent back upon itself to which; have opposite upper and lower finger portions Fig. 1 is a. front elevation of a blind structure each provided with an outwardly turned lip 3! 25 utilizing the novel slat supporting means of the and having a bight portion 32 through which a. present invention; t v wire attaching loop 33 is passed for attachment Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective fragment of to the front cord i2. the carriage and means for attaching the flexi- The loop 33 has its free end portions bent ble elements to the carriage and to a slat; back upon themselves to provide overlying ax- 30 Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section taken ially aligned eyelets 3t through which the cord laterally through the carriage and a slat and passes and which may be crimped or pressed so viewed along lines 3-3 of Fig. 1; as to tightly grip the cord and prevent the dis- Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective of the means placement of the loop therealong. 35 for attaching the flexible supporting elements l The clip proper may have a crimp 36 (Fig. 3) 35 to the edge of a slat, while formed in the lower finger thereof and adapted Fig. 5 is an elevational detail of a supporting to press into a slot 31 formed in the bottom surpalr including one chain and one iabric cord. face of the slat Hi, this type of clip structure In Fig. 1 herein we have chosen for purposes being particularly set forth in our co-pending 40' of illustration a type of Venetian blind strucapplication Serial No. 122,795, filed January 28, 40 ture particularly shown and described in our 1937, for a clip. This construction facilitates (lo-pending application Serial No. 122,793, filed slipping the clip onto the edge of the slat, and January 1937, Which reference y be likewise removing the clip so that the slats may had for a more detailed description of certain be cleaned or removed for purposes of repair of the operating and control mechanisms hered t 1 45 inafter referred to. The inner cords H" are not attached to each In general the above mentioned blind strucof the intermediate slats but only to the lowerture includes a plu a t of slats suspended most slat It at their lower extremities, therein spaced relation between pairs o ords, after passing upwardly through the main openwhich in turn depend from a pivotable carriage ing r the loops 33 and on upwardly through 50 it supported by and between a pair of brackets collars 38 in the bottom wall of the carriage Ill, l5 and lt secured in the upper corner portions from whence they pass over twin rollers 40 (Figs. of a window casing I8 behind a valance plate 20. ,2 and 3) and through an axial pay-hole 42 in The pairs of suspending cords l2 each include the pivotal mounting of the roller housing M in i a front cord I2 and a rear cord i2" (Figs. 2 and the end wall 85 of the carriage. Within the housing 44 is disposed a vertical roller 46, the periphery of which is tangential with the center of the pay-hole 2, and forwardly of the roller it is a horizontal roller 58 over which the several rear cords 12" pass from the vertical roller 46 out through the bottom of the housing 4 5 for emgagement with a union clip 50.

The clip 50 is a stamping having a hemispherical cord seat 52 with a bottom opening through which the knotted extremity 9' of the pulley cord 8 extends. The cord seat 52 is joined by ribs 53 to a widened upper body portion bent back upon itself to provide a bight 5t through which an oblong wire loop 55 is passed and which in turn engages a plurality of eyelet sleeves 22" crimped onto the upper ends of the back cords i2" as they issue from the bottom of the roller housing M. In this manner a unitary pull cord 8 is attached to the several rear cords l2 so that the latter may be raised simultaneously for the purpose of raising the lower slat i3 against the intermediate slats It so as to fold the latter in gathered relation up under the carriage it. As an appreciable pull is exerted upon the cord 8 in this operation, it is found desirable to secure the overlying end 50' of the widened body portion of the union clip to the main body portion by means of a screw 56 threaded into the main body portion of the clip.

It will thus be evident that we have provided a novel blind structure in which the blind slats are supported between pairs of flexible members in the form of cords, and additionally we have provided novel means for attaching these cords to the several slats and also to the operating mechanisms of the structure. It has heretofore been common practice to support the blind slats by means of fabric tapes, and various devices have been arranged for manipulating these tapes in such manner as .to tilt the slats and otherwise control the operation of the blind, but these tapes are not suited to the type of control mechanism disclosed herein and with which the present novel slat supporting means is intended to be used.

In applicants co-pending case first mentioned above, the supporting means is in the form,of light chains, and while. for most purposes these chains are very desirable and represent an important advance in the art, they have a tendency to create noise when the blind structure is vibrated or shaken to any considerable degree, as, for example, in installations on rolling stock including Pullman cars and the like.

In the form of arrangement shown in Fig. 5, we employ a simple outer chain I2' such as disclosed by our above-mentioned co-pending cases, while the companion element is a fabric cord I2 By. this arrangement the nesting or bunching of the slats is quietly efiected as the cord I2 moves over roller 40', and this cord, being attached only at its extremities, does not create any disturbing vibratory noise or chatter against either its companion chain or the slats.

By our present invention we have retained all of the desirable features of. the chain type of suspending means and at the same time eliminated the possibility of 'noise from excessive vibration by the employment of cord supporting elements such as the cords I2 and I2" herein, and the special attaching devices in theform of the eyelet 'sleeves 22 and the clip loo'ps 33, together with the common or union clip 59, and while changes may be made in the specific illustrative structure described herein, we do not intend to be limited to such details'except as may be provided in the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. Means for attaching blind slats to thin supporting cords, said means including a removable attaching member having a bight portion and adapted to fit over the edge of a slat, and a looped member passing through said bight portion and having free end portions bent back upon themselves to form axially aligned and substantially closed loops firmly embracing said cord, the main loop opening of said looped member being large enough to permit free passage therethrough of another cord similar to said first-mentioned cord.

2. Means for attaching blind slats to thin supporting elements,,said means including an attaching clip having a bight portion and adapted to slip over the edge of a slat, a loop member passed through said bight portion and having free end portions wound around said supporting element and firmly gripping the latter so as to support the loop in a plane substantially normal thereto.

3. Slat attaching means for Venetian blind structures, said means including a clip adapted to fit edgewise onto a slat and a loop member pivotal ly engaging said clip'along an axis parallel to the edge of said slat, said loop having free end portions turned back in opposite directions and firmly embracing a filamentary supporting element so as to support said loop at substantially right angles to said element.

4. In Venetian blinds having slats and supporting cords therefor, means for attaching the slats to the cords and including a U-shaped clip member adapted to fit over the edge ofa slat and having a bight portion normally parallel to the edge of the slat, a loop member pivotally engaging said bight portion of the clip and having its opposite free end portions turned back upon itself to provide substantially aligned openings through which said cord is extended, said edge portions being crimped into substantially rigid engagement with said cord so as to substantially prevent relative movement of the cord and said loop.

- 5. Means for attaching supporting cords to Venetian blind slats, said means including a loop member having free end portions turned back upon themselves around said cord and grippingly engaging the latter, and means'pivotally attaching said loop to an edge portion of said slat with said loop normally lying in the plane of the slat and the opening in said loop being large enough to provide for the free passage of a cord element similar to said first-mentioned cord.

WILLIAM WADE EDWIN NORTH. 

